Elected officials in the Kootenay/Boundary area fell short of supporting those opposed to Bill 24, the legislation that would change the rules of the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).Several members of Grand Forks City Council including Mayor Brian Taylor recently attended the Association of Kootenay and Boundary Local Governments (AKBLG) annual general meeting (AGM) in Creston from April 9-11.The theme of the conference was ‘Tying Communities Together’ and the AKBLG certainly does that by bringing together the elected officials from throughout the Kootenay/Boundary area.At the AGM, resolutions are brought forward from local governments on a variety of issues and debated. The resolutions are then sent to the provincial association, the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) with the intention of shaping public policy at the provincial level.Taylor said the group was petitioned by farmer groups who were opposed to Bill 24.“There were both sides of that at the meeting,” he said. “It was quite interesting. Basically, the pros and cons of it were put in front of councillors there.”Taylor said the AKBLG members voted to ask the provincial government to engage themselves more with some of the stakeholders involved.“It was a pretty low-key response from elected officials,” said Taylor. “There were a lot of people hoping we’d come out strongly against Bill 24. There were a lot of arguments and a lot of amendments that made it palatable to the group.”Taylor said he enjoyed spending time in Creston, which he said is quite similar to Grand Forks.“For me, I went out and spent some time with some of the farmers in the area looking at the cherry business,” said Taylor. “They’re suffering from some of the same problems that we are – fruit flies and various other things but they have a thriving fairly new industry built on a type of cherry called lapins. So that was interesting.”Taylor added that Creston also has a number of empty storefront in their downtown core.“They’re suffering from the same downturn for the small commercial operators,” he said. “In numbers and everything very similar. They, obviously, have bigger farming interests. They have sizeable cattle ranches. They’re the ones that Bill Bennett (guest speaker and minister of energy and mines) was pointing to in saying, ‘These are the kind of people looking for that flexibility of land use that would allow them to continue to farm their property’.” Taylor said he’s curious to see who would be appointed to the provincial boards. “I trust that the decisions won’t be all that radical in terms of protecting the environment and our farming lands,” he said.